Sunday, November 1, 2009

Why vote Tuesday November 3, 2009 For a Veterans Hospital?

Why vote Tuesday November 3, 2009 For a Veterans Hospital?

This Tuesday November 3, 2009 we have a very important election. In fact I would venture to say that this election is more important than, the many boards, commissions, and city, county, state and federal elections of this century. We have the opportunity to GO VOTE FOR Constitutional Amendment 8(H.J.R. 7) to authorize the State to contribute money, property, and other resources for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of veteran’s hospitals in this state.” Our State Legislators are to be commended for proposing this amendment. Now it is up to us to ratify it into the Texas Constitution.

Why do I say this?

Well let me try to explain to you my reasoning. Each time I visit the Viet Nam Memorial Wall I choke up and ask my self “why I am here and their names are inscribed there”? The only answer I can come up with is “That is what we might just call the Grace of God'.

I lost friends and class mates and dear loved ones that served. I still shed pent up tears trying to relieve the shadowed sorrow that mortally wounded my soul by that crazy war.

When our fellow veterans came back they were treated with out the respect and gratitude that our nation clearly owed them.

Now as our Veterans age and a new era of Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans come home. It is up to us to make sure they are welcomed and helped to reassemble into civilian life. They must absolutely have their medical needs and harsh emotional wounds attended to right here in our Rio Grande Valley. The very place where they deployed from the safety and warmth of their home, friends, family and other loved ones when duty called. I must tell you that when they return they are never the same as when they left.

Yes the VA Hospital in the RGV is way past due! How can our country spend billions on a border wall and other such things in the RGV? Our state has spent hundreds of millions rebuilding the Texas State Capitol Buildings. It is presently spending more millions for the Governor's Mansion restoration. How then can we forget that great debt of gratitude we owe our veterans?

Today, November 1, 2009, "all Souls Day", I salute and thank all our veterans for their service in all wars it is your heart and soul that has made and keeps our country great and free.

Our sick and suffering veteran's life and limb deserve restoration and rebuilding too!When asked to do their duty they snapped to, hand saluted and said "yes sir"!

When asked by these same men and women for the hospital they so desperately needHow else can we respond but to go to the polls on Tuesday “snap to” and vote "Yes Sir” on Amendment 8 for a VA hospital in the Valley? We must now turn “the tide of possibilities” into the reality of a VA hospital in the RGV.

To quote professor Samuel Freeman's article in the RGV Guardian today "The ONLY way we will get a Veterans Hospital in the Valley is for the Veterans Administration, the State, and the University of Texas System to work together in partnership to bring both a Medical School and a Veterans Hospital in the valley. Please vote for this proposition. As a veteran, I thank you. for your support"

full of wannabe touchy feely good about yourself for being there and giving money to a worthy cause that kills less people than heart disease and cancer but look at me I have a red ribbon and I care more than you event.

I can't believe you would approve of something so vile as that last comment. The nerve of some people! AIDS is a horrible disease that must be stopped. Don't you know that young gays kill themselves every day because of the stigma of AIDS? Are you so at a loss for comments that you approve these kinds of vicious comments, Commissioner? This is not a shock jock blog. I come to this blog for news and city updates.

In today's Brownsville Voice, Bobby Wightman Cervantes blogs, "Melissa Zamora forever painted herself as not trustworthy when after winning the election she chose to do consulting work with someone who does business with the city. I believe in redemption. We see that redemption in their acts, and not their words."

What do you have to say in your defense to this glass half empty colleague?